Anarchism and the
different Naturist views have always been related.
This relationship was quite important at the end
of the 1920s. The linking role played by the ‘Sol
y Vida’ group was very important . The goal
of this group was to take trips and enjoy the
open air. The Naturist athenaeum, ‘Ecléctico’,
in Barcelona, was the base from which the activities
of the group were launched. First ‘Etica’
and then ‘Iniciales’, which began
in 1929, were the publications of the group, which
lasted until the Spanish Civil War. We must be
aware that the naturist ideas expressed in them
matched the desires that the libertarian youth
had of breaking up with the conventions of the
bourgeoisie of the time. That is what a young
worker explained in a letter to ‘Iniciales’
He writes it under the odd pseudonym of ‘silvestre
del campo’, (wild man in the country). “I
find great pleasure in being naked in the woods,
bathed in light and air, two natural elements
we cannot do without. By shunning the humble garment
of an exploited person, (garments which, in my
opinion, are the result of all the laws devised
to make our lives bitter), we feel there no others
left but just the natural laws. Clothes mean slavery
for some and tyranny for others. Only the naked
man who rebels against all norms, stands for anarchism,
devoid of the prejudices of outfit imposed by
our money-oriented society.”

The relation between
Anarchism and Naturism gives way to the Naturist
Federation, in July 1928, and to the lV Spanish
Naturist Congress, in September 1929, both supported
by the Libertarian Movement. However, in the short
term, the Naturist and Libertarian movements grew
apart in their conceptions of everyday life. The
Naturist movement felt closer to the Libertarian
individualism of some French theoreticians such
as Henri Ner than to the revolutionary goals proposed
by some Anarchist organisations such as the FAI,
(Federación Anarquista Ibérica).
During the Republican period that split led to
both orientations growing further and further
apart.

Naturalism,
as well as other ideas for change in sexual behaviour,
have remained within the Libertarian Movements
longer than they have been, if ever, in other
labour oriented parties. With the fall of the
Republican regime and the arrival of General Franco’s
dictatorship, all that disappeared